


Power Play

by GothicDeetz



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Accidents, Aggression, Alternate Universe, Apologies, Bad Decisions, Best Friends, Bonding, Clones, Control, Dead People, Decisions, Demons, Drama, Epilogue, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Issues, Father Figures, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, Good Demons, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Invisibility, Loss of Control, Mother Figures, Multi, Not Really Character Death, One Big Happy Family, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Problems, Prologue, Rage, Regret, Step-parents, Strong Friendships, Talking, Talking To Dead People, Telekinesis, Teleportation, Time Skips, Trouble, anger issues, distancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 12,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicDeetz/pseuds/GothicDeetz
Summary: (Formerly titled “Ghost Powered”)Lydia Deetz has always wanted ghost powers of her very own ever since she, her dad, and Delia were allowed to live with the Maitlands.An accident involving Betelgeuse and Lydia ends with Lydia getting her very own ghost powers. Ecstatic, she decides almost immediately that she wants to keep them forever but Adam, Barbara, Charles, and Delia all seem to think that it's a bad idea. Just what kind of trouble can a teenage human girl with ghost powers get into exactly?Tons of it...that's what.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz, Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz/Delia Deetz, Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Prologue

Sixteen year-old Lydia Veronica Joyce Deetz had always wondered what it would be like if she had ghost powers of her very own like Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse all did. Her thoughts had been nothing but images of her with ghost powers and she often talked about having them. And that, of course, worried both her dad and Delia. The Maitlands were equally worried, not wanting to know what Lydia would be like if she had ghost powers. So they tried to get her to think about something other than her having ghost powers.

It wasn’t worth it. The Maitlands would get Lydia to think about something else before she went back to thinking about how better her life would be if she had ghost powers. Not knowing what to do, they turned to Charles and Delia for help. But all they got out of the Deetzes was to ask Betelgeuse for help. They said he’d know what to do.

And that was exactly what the two ghosts did. Adam quickly drew a door to the Netherworld using a piece of chalk that he found laying around in the attic of the house and Barbara moved to knock on it, stepping back as the door creaked open.

“Adam?” Barbara turned to face her husband, the tone in her voice a little nervous. “What if Betelgeuse doesn’t know what to do to cure Lydia of her obsession with having ghost powers?”

He let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead, “he’s Lydia’s best friend. I’m sure he’ll know how to help her out.”

“If you say so.”

They entered the Netherworld, panic running through their minds. What if Barbara was right? What if Betelgeuse really didn’t know how to help cure Lydia of her strange and unusual obsession?


	2. One

Adam and Barbara soon found themselves in a officelike room in the depths of the Netherworld, standing still as Betelgeuse leaned back in a chair in front of them. The demon had his eyes focused on both ghosts, a hand resting against his chin. They explained everything, from Lydia’s obsession to how Lydia constantly asked them about their ghost powers. Betelgeuse listened intently. His eyes widened in surprise. Lydia? Obsessed with having ghost powers? 

“So,” he began, the tone of his voice serious, “what’s all this about Lyds having an obsession with ghost powers?”

“It’s all she’s been thinking about ever since we let her, Charles, and Delia live with us,” Barbara explained, slowly running a hand through her dirty Blonde hair. “We would get her to think about something other than her having ghost powers of her own but then she would just go right back to thinking about having said ghost powers.”

“I see,” Betelgeuse commented. 

“Can you help us?” Adam asked, shifting a little in his seat.

“I can try,” Betelgeuse said, getting up. He led them back over towards the very same door that they’d used to enter the Netherworld and the three of them went through it. The Maitlands had hope Betelgeuse actually knew how to help Lydia. They didn’t know what they were going to do if he did not. 

To be honest, if Lydia had ghost powers like the Maitlands and Betelgeuse did, she could help around the house more. Do outdoors chores for the two ghosts whenever they didn’t want to go outside. Do outdoors chores when her dad and stepmother were away on vacation. It would prove helpful. That was the good thing that came out of that. The bad thing was, Lydia was still a human being. If she had ghost powers, who knows what might happen. Lydia wouldn’t even know how to properly use her ghost powers if she were to ever get any so it was a good thing that she wasn’t dead...yet.

Barbara stopped, deep in thought and Betelgeuse and Adam turned to face her. They saw the female ghost just stand there, her face blank. Adam was worried for his wife, making his way over towards her and waving a hand in front of her eyes. “Barbara, honey?” He asked, “you there?!”

She shook her head, eyeing her husband and Betelgeuse. “Yeah.”

“What in the Netherworld was going on with you?” The tone in Adam’s voice was concerned, worried, for his wife.

“Nothing,” Barbara reached a hand up, gently pushing a loose strand of her dirty Blonde hair out of her eyes, “I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how good things would be if Lydia were to ever get ghost powers of her own,” Barbara explained with a slight chuckle. Adam raised an eyebrow, signifying that he was a bit nervous at the thought of Lydia having ghost powers. Barbara sighed as she continued speaking, “she could help us out with chores. Especially those done outside.”

“Barbara-,” Adam began. 

Betelgeuse cut him off, “are you guys coming or what?”

“We’re coming,” they said in unison, “we’re coming.”


	3. Two

Lydia tried to pry open the copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased laying in her lap to no avail. She grunted, slamming the book down as hard as she could on the attic floor, standing up and exiting the attic of the house, heading downstairs to the kitchen. She’d go back to trying to read through the Handbook later...when both Adam and Barbara returned.

She wasn’t even a few steps down the stairs when she heard a loud thump followed by a series of grunts. Wondering if that was Adam and Barbara returning, Lydia turned and made her way back up towards the attic. She slowly and carefully pushed the attic door open and entered. 

“Adam? Barbara?” she shouted, “was that you guys?”

Lydia heard a faint “yeah” and smiled, making her way over towards her surrogate ghost parents. She stopped short upon seeing Betelgeuse, a small smile creeping across her face. She ran forwards and embraced her best friend in a rather tight hug, which he accepted. 

“It’s been forever since I last saw you, Beej,” Lydia cried happily. 

“Relax, Scarecrow,” Betelgeuse put Lydia back down on the ground as soon as the latter let go of him. “It’s been a few weeks. Have you forgotten us playing with that flame thrower?”

“No,” Lydia said with a laugh.

“Us tricking Barbara into summoning me by having her identify the star that is my namesake for you?”

“No,” Lydia repeated.

“The time we played with those toy swords?”

“No.”

“The time we rode those sleds down the stairs?”

“No.”

“That one time we were messing around and I held you upside down?”

“No.”

“The time we were outside and throwing mud at one another.”

“No.”

“What about the one time you refused to go to sleep and instead wanted me to help you pull pranks on both sets of your parents?”

“No.”

“How about that time I accidentally lashed out at you and ended up turning the Maitlands into toddlers?”

“No,” Lydia reached her arms out, hugging Betelgeuse again, “why would I ever forget any of that.” Lydia smiled as all the memories that she shared with Betelgeuse ran through her mind. 

From the two of them playing around with that flame thrower that Lydia found much to the Maitlands’ chagrin to Betelgeuse accidentally lashing out at Lydia and accidentally turning the two ghosts into toddler versions of themselves, the teen knew she was never going to forget Betelgeuse was her best demon friend. Even if he was dead.

“Excuse me,” Adam spoke up softly, causing Lydia and Betelgeuse to turn around and look in the male ghost’s general direction, “Babs and I are still trying to forget that we were accidentally turned into toddlers by you. Thank you very much.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lydia said in an apparent teasing tone of voice, “were you trying to forget how much trouble you caused Betelgeuse and I when that happened?”

“LYDIA VERONICA JOYCE DEETZ!!!” Adam shouted, placing his hands on his hips.

“What?!”


	4. Three

Lydia sat silently in her bed room, her arms crossed. She hadn’t quite expected to be yelled at by her surrogate ghost father but here she was. He stood in front of her, his hands still placed on his hips. Adam turned, slowly beginning to pace around Lydia’s bedroom and the latter could tell that he was still a little upset with her. Lydia shifted a little on her bed, her eyes watching Adam.

She had to admit, teasing Adam about the time he and Barbara were turned into toddlers wasn’t what she was going to do. But she did it anyway and now she was in trouble with the male ghost.

“Lydia Veronica Joyce Deetz.” Adam’s tone of voice was serious. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I...I...” Lydia sounded nervous. Maybe even scared. “I’m sorry, Adam. I didn’t mean to upset you.” 

The expression on Adam’s face softened and he sat himself down next to Lydia on the latter’s bed, resting a hand on top of her shoulder. She nervously looked up at him and tears started to pour from her eyes. She rested her head against his shoulder. 

Adam slowly began to gently run his free hand through Lydia’s short, Black hair, earning a soft smile from the teenager. He moved to carefully wipe a few excess tears from her eyes and Lydia pulled him into a hug, surprising him. 

“Lydia,” Adam started to softly say. 

He was interrupted by Lydia speaking. “I just wanted to let you know exactly how sorry I am for accidentally putting memories that you wished to forget into your mind,” the teenager spoke softly, her voice exceptionally quiet. “You’re not gonna stop talking to me for a while like you did the last time? Are you?”

Adam laughed softly, returning his surrogate daughter’s hug. “Nono, of course not. Why?”

“Just wondering,” Lydia said with a smile. 

She focused her attention on the copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, which she’d brought with her back to her bedroom when Adam had asked her to follow him. This exceptionally confused the male ghost. Why did Lydia want to bring the Handbook for the Recently Deceased with her. She didn’t need it and she couldn’t open it.

She stood up, making her way over towards where the Handbook for the Recently Deceased was. 

“Lydia, where are you going?” Adam asked, rather worriedly. “Lydia?”

She picked up the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and made her way over towards Adam again, sitting herself down on her bed.

“What do you need the Handbook for, Lydia?” Adam eyed it, panic running through his mind. He watched Lydia, again and unsuccessfully, try to pry it open. She groaned loudly, handing it to Adam. “Do you need help with opening this?”

“Well yeah!” Lydia grumbled, resting her hands against her chin. “I wish I was a ghost! I wish I had powers like you, Barbara, and Betelgeuse do!”

“No, you don’t.” 

Adam opened the Handbook and gave it back to Lydia, watching as the teen flipped through it and stopped on the exact page she was looking for, beginning to read out a poem that was on that page. And, at that same moment, Betelgeuse, wanting to check and see if his best friend was okay, entered Lydia’s bedroom right as Lydia finished reading the poem.

“Betelgeuse, I don’t think you should be in here right now,” Adam warned.

But the demon didn’t listen.

Betelgeuse stopped suddenly, staring at Lydia right as a bright flash of light illuminated the latter's bedroom. Adam made a move for it, quickly teleporting himself out of the room in order to avoid getting hit by whatever the light was. But Lydia and Betelgeuse knew it was because the male ghost was afraid he was going to be turned into a toddler again on accident.

Betelgeuse refocused his attention back over towards Lydia, shielding his eyes just as the bright light caused by the poem Lydia read as he entered her bedroom finished covering the room.

But it was too late. The light not only covered Lydia but him as well. 

The light disappeared as quickly as it appeared with a loud explosion-like noise, one that shook the whole house and could be heard downstairs.

And then Betelgeuse and Lydia blacked out.

_____

They awoke an approximate twenty five or so minutes later, their eyes, blurry, focusing on an exceptionally worried Charles, Delia, Adam, and Barbara standing over the two of them. Realizing that the explosion was very loud enough for the four adults to hear, a shivering Lydia slowly sat up, followed by Betelgeuse.

“Wha-what happened?” Was the first thing Lydia said.

Charles moved to help his daughter up and she hugged him. A hand brushed against Lydia’s cheek and she looked up, eyeing her dad. “Lydia?” He asked. “Are you okay? That was a rather loud explosion.”

“I’m fine,” Lydia said quietly. “I just feel...different.”

“Different how?” Barbara raised an eyebrow, clearly concerned.

“I don’t know...I-.”

Lydia’s eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly teleported herself behind Barbara and all four adults turned to face the teenager, clearly scared about what had just happened. To Lydia, this was all new and unexpected. She didn’t expect this to happen. She teleported herself onto her bed and all four of her parents turned to face her again.

“Did you just...” Barbara’s hand was shaking as she pointed it at Lydia.

“I think I did,” came Lydia’s panicked response. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

Adam telekinetically levitated and brought the still open copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased over towards him and began scanning through it. He stopped on the exact same page as Lydia had earlier and gasped. The page talked about giving humans ghost powers. There were listed cases of it happening before.

He motioned Barbara, Charles, and Delia over towards him. “Hey uh, guys, I think you might want to look at this.”


	5. Four

“How to give humans ghost powers,” Delia read out loud, turning and nervously eyeing Charles, Adam, and Barbara. “You don’t think?”

“Well.” Adam bit his lip and rubbed the back of his neck. “She did read that particular poem right as Betelgeuse entered the room so maybe reading it gave Lydia Betelgeuse’s powers on accident?”

“There’s only one way to be sure,” Barbara said, turning to face Betelgeuse. “Hey, Betelgeuse?”

“Yeah.” The aforementioned demon shakily stood up, making his way over towards Barbara.

“Do you still have your powers?”

“Yeah...I think so...” Betelgeuse grew confused, cocking his head to the side. “Why ask?” The Deetzes and the Maitlands all stepped aside and pointed at a now exceptionally curious, floating Lydia. Betelgeuse’s eyes widened in surprise. Not only was Lydia obsessed with having ghost powers. She now had ghost powers. Panic ran through Betelgeuse’s mind. What was going on? “She’s not dead? Is she?” 

That was one question that now lingered on Lydia’s four parents’ minds.

“Lydia, are you still alive?” Delia asked, turning to look up at her new stepdaughter.

“Yeah...” Came the teen’s response. “Why ask?”

“That doesn’t explain how you have ghost powers,” a nervous Adam continued. “Especially Betelgeuse’s Powers.”

“I don’t have Betelgeuse’s powers.”

“What?” All four of Lydia’s parents looked at one another in concern.

Lydia pointed at Betelgeuse and her four parents turned to see him telekinetically levitating the now closed copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased next to him in midair. If Betelgeuse still had his powers then whose powers did Lydia have? That one thought ran through all four adults’ minds.

“I don’t have anyone’s powers. I think these are my own.”

Her four parents turned to face her again, shock now running through their minds. Did Lydia just read their minds? Lydia teleported herself across the room from Betelgeuse and the two began to telekinetically throw stuff at one another. Charles and Delia quickly ducked to avoid being hit by the multitude of random objects that were being thrown by a now laughing and grinning Lydia and Betelgeuse. Only standing up again when the sudden object throwing subsided. 

“This is a bad idea,” the Deetzes and the Maitlands said in unison. 

“And why, pray tell, is me having ghost powers considered a bad idea?”

“Well,” Adam began, moving to stand next to his surrogate daughter. “For starters, you’re still human. It’ll probably take a while for you to get used to having ghost powers.”

“And it will take you some time to figure out how to control them,” Barbara added with a sigh.

Lydia pouted and was about to say something when Betelgeuse cut her off. “But look on the bright side, Lyds. Look at how much fun you and I can have with your new powers.”

“No!” Adam, Barbara, Charles, and Delia all shouted in unison.

“YES!” Lydia cheered. 

She floated over towards Betelgeuse and began to whisper something her four parents couldn’t make out in his ear. Whatever the two were planning on doing with Lydia’s powers, Adam, Barbara, Charles, and Delia sure hoped that it wasn’t that dangerous. The Deetzes ducked again, suddenly alarmed by Lydia and Betelgeuse flying around Lydia’s bedroom at full speed. 

“Lydia, Betelgeuse!” The equally unhappy Maitlands eyed them, their arms folded. “Stop that right now!”

“But we just got started having fun with Lyd’s new powers,” Betelgeuse complained as he and Lydia flew above the group of four adults for the umpteenth time. “Can’t you just let us have our fun?”

“No!” The Deetzes and the Maitlands shouted in unison.

“Aw, come on.” Lydia stopped flying around her bedroom and was now floating in place above her two sets of parents. “I just got these powers and you guys don’t want me to have fun with them. You guys are being spoilsports. I want to keep these powers forever.”

“WHAT?!” Adam, Barbara, Charles, and Delia shouted in unison.


	6. Five

Lydia was nervous. It was her first day at school with her brand new ghost powers and she wasn’t sure how her friends, classmates, fellow students, and teachers were going to react to them. She slowly entered her first class of the day, photography, and sat herself down next to her best human friend Olympia. 

Olympia was Adam’s younger sister. A previously unknown fact that Lydia found out a few months back when she first met her. Lydia was surprised at first. She had a feeling her surrogate ghost parents were both only children. But now she knew that wasn’t true. In Adam’s case at least. 

Olympia turned to her and smiled softly, resting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder. “Heya, Lyds. How was your weekend?”

“Fine, Fine, I’m totally fine. Nothing’s wrong with me,” Lydia mumbled softly, glancing away from her friend. This confused the Medium Brown haired girl.

“Did something happen to you this weekend, Lydia?”

“No...why ask?”

“Lydia...” Olympia spoke.

Lydia’s eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly teleported herself out of her seat and to the back of the classroom. The students that were in the class at the moment, Olympia included, all turned to look at her and Lydia could see a mixed look of fear, surprise, curiosity, worry, concern, and confusion in her best human friend’s eyes.

Olympia looked like she was about to have a panic attack at seeing this but she managed to regain composure. 

“Lydia...” Olympia repeated.

“Heh...sorry.” 

Lydia adopted a sincere, apologetic look on her face as she teleported herself back into her seat, turning to face her best human friend. Olympia just laughed softly, turning to face Lydia as well and pulling her into a surprise hug. 

“Oly,” Lydia tried to say but Olympia cut her off.

“That was amazing, Lydia! I want to do that!”

“Oh yeah,” Lydia teased, playfully punching Olympia in the arm. “Just wait till I tell your older brother about this. He’s going to freak out when he finds out you want powers like his.”

“Please don’t do that!” Olympia moved to tackle Lydia to the floor and the two girls erupted into bouts of laughter.

“Oh, I’m totally going to do it!” Lydia began to flail around, trying to get out of her friend’s grip. But Olympia wasn’t going to let go. She tightened her grip, causing Lydia to laugh louder.

“Oh no you’re not!”

“Oh yes I am!”  
______

Lydia returned home from school, tired as heck. Not only was Olympia insistent on getting ghost powers of her very own so she could be like Lydia, she also wanted her to bring the Handbook for the Recently Deceased over to her house and read out the poem she found so Olympia could be able to have powers as well.

One could say Lydia was nervous. What was Adam going to say when he found out what his younger sister wanted? She knew he was going to react badly. She was afraid of how badly.

She was greeted by Adam and chose to remain quiet around him, leading the male ghost to worry about why she was quiet.  
______ 

Adam entered the teenager’s room, finding her sitting at her desk and quietly doing her homework. He sat down on her bed, thinking about how to grab Lydia’s attention. Then he came up with a great idea. 

He looked up at her smoke detector, which he’d quickly replaced without Lydia noticing just a few short days ago after the house very nearly and accidentally burned to the ground thanks to another one of Lydia and Betelgeuse’s ridiculous ideas. They’d again used matches and a lighter to cook food on the stove and succeeded but Barbara stepped in and managed to extinguish the fire that was caused by doing that.

Not even Charles and Delia were pleased when they found out what had happened. 

Adam used his powers to set Lydia’s smoke detector off and the teen turned to face him, scared to death. She held a hand over her heart and breathed in and out softly. “Ah, Adam, you scared me. I didn’t know you were here,” Lydia gasped to herself, calming down as Adam used his powers to stop Lydia’s smoke detector from beeping. “How long were you here?”

“Not too long.” Adam let out a sigh. “I noticed you were quiet when you got home from school. Is something the matter, Lydia?”

“Yeah.” Lydia wasn’t sure how to explain this. “Your younger sister saw me teleport during class today and now she wants ghost powers too.”

“WHAT?”


	7. Six

Lydia didn’t feel like using her knife and fork at dinner that night, instead telekinetically levitating her food up to her mouth and eating it. Her dad and Delia stared at her, placing their forks down. As did Adam and Barbara. To the four of them, the teenager looked like she was eating like an animal. A piece of food hung out of her mouth and she pushed it in using her hand.

“Lydia!!!!” Her dad, Delia, Adam, and Barbara said in unison.

“What?!” Looking up, Lydia noticed all four of her parents eyeing her with equal looks of disgust. 

Betelgeuse didn’t care though. He was busy shoving food into his mouth much like Lydia was doing five short minutes ago. Lydia laughed at this and her four parents looked to the demon before refocusing their attention back towards Lydia. The teen had since gone back to dramatically shoving food into her mouth and Delia coughed to grab her attention. 

Lydia stopped what she was doing and looked up again, once again saying, “what?!”

“We’d all appreciate it if you stopped eating like you’re some sort of animal, Lydia,” Adam said with a sigh. 

“But...Betelgeuse is doing it...”

“That doesn’t mean that you should, Lydia,” Barbara continued.

“But...he told me to eat like this and then started to eat the exact same way as well.” Lydia stuck her tongue out, blowing a raspberry and folding her arms.

That just made her father furious with her. “Lydia Veronica Joyce!” Charles suddenly stood up. “That is enough!” 

“But....” Lydia just looked over at him and mumbled something else that was inaudible, this only serving to make Charles even more furious with her. 

Eyeing Lydia, Charles pointed over towards the stairs, shouting, “GO TO YOUR ROOM!”

“I’m going, I’m going,” Lydia said with a huff, teleporting herself out of the dining room and into her bedroom. She telekinetically slammed her door shut and all four of her parents and Betelgeuse could hear her throw things about her room and scream.

Charles somehow managed to remain calm throughout this whole situation, resting his hands on the dining table and looking over towards Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse. He noticed confused looks on each of their faces and adopted a similar and equal look of confusion on his face. “What?”

“That was a little bit too harsh on Lydia, Charles,” Barbara commented on Charles’s treatment of Lydia. “Don’t you think?”

“Wasn’t it.” Charles stood up, slamming his hands on the dining table and eyeing Barbara. “You saw her. She stuck her tongue out at you and blew a raspberry, Barbara.”

“I know she did that, Charles!”

Delia began to notice the air grow cold as her husband continued to argue with Barbara and she coughed to grab their attention. They both ceased their argument and turned to face the now exceptionally concerned Spiritual Life Coach, wondering what she was going to say. They noticed Adam and Betelgeuse looking at them as well with equal looks of concern plastered on their faces. 

“Could you two please stop arguing?” Delia asked politely. “It’s making the air around us feel cold.”

“Oh okay.” Charles and Barbara looked at one another apologetically.

“Charles,” Adam spoke up. “I think you should go upstairs and check on Lydia.”

“Already doing it,” Charles said, getting up and slowly making his way upstairs.


	8. Seven

Charles entered Lydia’s bedroom and found the teen girl turned away from him, her eyes focused on a broken lamp on the floor by her feet. Charles gasping in shock grabbed Lydia’s attention and the teenager turned to look directly at him. Charles remained silent, just moving to sit down on his daughter’s bed and patting a spot next to him for Lydia to sit down. Lydia silently teleported herself onto her bed and focused her attention on her ceiling. 

It was only when her dad pulled her close to him that the teen girl decided to look at him instead. Charles pulled his daughter into a hug and Lydia melted into it, apparent tears dripping down her face. Charles noticed Lydia’s face was red from all the crying she must’ve done from when he yelled at her earlier. And it made Charles feel bad knowing that he made her feel bad. There had to be some way to make it up to his daughter.

“Do you want to talk, Lydia, sweetheart?” Charles asked his daughter.

Lydia mumbled something that Charles couldn’t make out.

“What was that?”

“I said there’s not much to say or talk about, dad,” Lydia repeated, louder this time. “Go away!”

“Lydia Veronica Joyce!” Charles placed his hands on his hips. “I don’t appreciate your tone right now, young lady!”

Charles could see his daughter shrink back and the look of anger plastered on his face faded. This made Charles realize that he hadn’t been that much upset with Lydia since before they even moved into their new house. Not that too long after Lydia had lost her mom and Charles lost his wife. 

Charles saw tears start to pour from Lydia’s eyes again and he reached a hand out, attempting to wipe said tears but all Lydia did was slap his hand away and turn away from him.

“Lydia,” Charles tried to say.

“GO AWAY!!!”

Charles sighed and turned, exiting Lydia’s bedroom and heading back downstairs. He’ll try to talk to Lydia later. Right now, he needed to leave her alone so she could calm down.

_______

Charles sat himself down at the dining room table and sighed, causing Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse to look at him in concern. 

Barbara was the first to speak. “Did you get Lydia to calm down?”

“No.” Charles let out a sigh. “I didn’t. I tried to ask her if she wanted to talk and all I got out of her was her asking me to ‘go away’.”

“Is she that upset with you for yelling at her earlier?” Adam added.

“Yeah.” Charles silently resumed eating his dinner.

“Tell you what.” Barbara rested a hand on Charles’s shoulder. “We’ll give her some space for now and later, we’ll all head up to her room later and try to calm her down. How does that sound?”

All Charles did was nod.

______

“Lydia!”

Lydia perked up at the sound of knocking on her door, shouting, “Come in!”

Her dad, Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse entered, Barbara moving to sit herself down on Lydia’s bed and resting a hand on top of Lydia’s shoulder. Lydia just rested a hand on top of Barbara’s hand, leaning against the female ghost. This made Barbara smile softly and she pulled Lydia into a hug. This earned her a soft smile from the teenager.

“Did you want to try to talk again, Lydia?” Charles asked, sitting down to Lydia’s right and resting a hand on Lydia’s other shoulder.

“Now I do.” The tone present in Lydia’s voice was much happier now and she was looking in her dad’s direction. Charles smiled at Lydia and Barbara stood up, moving to stand near Adam and Delia. Just to let Charles and Lydia talk amongst themselves. 

Charles motioned for Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse to leave. And they did so. Being the last to leave, Barbara called over her shoulder, “if you need any of us to come back upstairs, let us know!” 

Charles nodded, saying, “Will do.”

Barbara nodded as well and smiled, turning to leave and closing the door to Lydia’s bedroom behind her.


	9. Eight

Lydia stomped down the stairs around thirty or so minutes later, followed by a slightly calmer Charles. It was clear she was still upset with him for yelling at her. Lydia groaned as she entered the living room and plunked herself down on the couch. Delia, Adam, and Barbara all looked over towards the teenager, each concerned for her. Perhaps leaving Charles alone to talk to her wasn’t the best idea as of right now. 

Delia and Barbara made their way over towards Lydia and sat on either side of her. Lydia didn’t do anything except grumble when the two of them rested a hand on both of her shoulders. Delia looked to Barbara and the latter sighed softly.

“Is something wrong?” Adam asked, entering the living room as well.

“I don’t know, Adam, honey,” Barbara began to say. She was interrupted by Lydia.

All Lydia did was mumble something and teleport herself into the kitchen, using her powers to telekinetically open the pantry door and levitate a packet of crisps out. She opened the packet, beginning to slowly eat the said crisps. Adam, Barbara, and Delia all looked at her in pure confusion before turning to look at one another.

They could tell something was definitely still wrong with the teenager. Had she yelled at her dad again. That’s what they wanted to know.

“Lydia-,” Delia tried to say.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”

Lydia angrily teleported herself out of the kitchen and back into her bedroom, leaving behind a now stunned Charles, Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse. The group of five looked at one another in silence. 

One of the three ghosts was going to have to teach Lydia how to properly control and use her ghost powers whilst Charles and Delia helped her control her temper. They had a feeling that Lydia’s powers were much stronger and more dangerous when she was upset and they wanted to prevent that from happening.

“So,” Delia began, flinching when she heard Lydia telekinetically slam her door closed for the second time that night. “Is anyone going to convince her to come down again?” 

Charles, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse looked at one another before refocusing their attention back towards the Spiritual Life Coach and Delia noticed desperate looks on each of their faces. 

“So me?” Delia let out a slight sigh when the other four nodded.

______

“Lydia? You there?” Delia knocked on the teenager’s door a few times.

She received an answer, “yeah!” 

“Can I come in and talk to you?” There was a hint of worry present in Delia’s voice. She was worried the teenager was going to say no.

“You can as long as it doesn’t take too long!” Lydia shouted. 

Delia smiled, entering and sitting down next to Lydia on the latter’s bed, resting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder and pulling the teenager close to her. Lydia relaxed in Delia’s hold. Delia may still be a Spiritual Life Coach, but she wasn’t Lydia’s. At least not anymore. 

Delia no longer being Lydia’s Life Coach and instead the teenager’s stepmother gave the two females a chance to bond as a family. Part of a family that also consisted of Lydia’s biological father, the Maitlands, and Betelgeuse. 

“What did you want to talk about, stepmother?” Lydia asked after a few minutes of silence shared between the two females. 

This made Delia smile. It was rare for Lydia to call her her stepmother. “Are you still that upset with your father, Lydia?”

“What?! No! Of course not.” Lydia was surprised by this. “Why ask?”

“Lydia. Adam, Barbara, Betelgeuse, and I heard you stomping out of your room and downstairs. Is there a reason for that?” Now Delia was starting to slowly feel like she was Lydia’s own Life Coach again instead of her stepmother.

She did not want this conversation to make it sound like that.


	10. Nine

A sulking Lydia teleported herself into the kitchen early the next morning and used her powers to make herself a bowl of cereal. Levitating it next to her, Lydia sauntered over to the kitchen counter, sat down, and began to eat her bowl of cereal. 

She didn’t seem to notice her dad and stepmom enter the kitchen and sit down next to her. She was too focused on what fun things she could potentially do with her newfound powers. What fun pranks she could pull on both sets of her parents with Betelgeuse’s help. 

Charles coughed to grab his daughter’s attention and Lydia looked towards him. “Ah, dad, Delia,” Lydia squealed out of surprise. “You guys scared me.” She composed herself. “How long have you been here?”

“Around a minute, Lydia, sweetheart,” Charles said with a slight chuckle, pulling Lydia into a hug. Lydia melted into the hug, pulling Delia closer to her. A few minutes and Lydia pulled away from her dad and stepmom, solely eyeing her dad.

“Dad?” The teenager asked. “Can I perhaps not go to school for the time being. I don’t feel comfortable going to school with my powers. I don’t want to teleport by mistake again.”

“I’ll call the school and see if that’s possible,” Charles said, resting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder.

“Thanks, dad.”

________

Lydia was glad she was able to get two full weeks off school. It gave her enough time to get used to and control her powers. It gave her enough time to pull as many pranks on her four parents as she wanted to with Betelgeuse’s help. The possibilities were endless.

She snuck into the living room and quietly whispered something into Betelgeuse’s ear all the while looking over into the kitchen and eyeing her four parents. Betelgeuse nodded to her and materialized two buckets of water out of thin air, levitating them into the kitchen. He watched Lydia do the same and gave the teenage girl a wicked smirk. 

“Ready?” Betelgeuse asked.

“Ready,” Lydia repeated.

They refocused their attention back towards Lydia’s four parents and slowly tipped the four buckets of water hovering above the four adults. As the water poured out of each of the buckets and drenched all four of Lydia’s parents, they turned to look over towards Lydia and Betelgeuse, extremely furious.

“Lydia, Betelgeuse, what was that for?” Charles asked out of anger, placing his hands on his hips.

“I-we thought it was a fun thing to do...” Lydia smiled cheekily at her four parents.

“Well, we didn’t,” Lydia’s four parents said in unison.

______

Charles, Delia, Adam, and Barbara sat Lydia down on the couch and sat across from her, still exceptionally furious with the teenager for the prank she and Betelgeuse pulled. Lydia felt a little nervous to be around the four of them. What if they grounded her. 

Charles chose to be the first to speak, “Lydia, why did you and Betelgeuse pull that prank on us?”

“Like I said earlier, we thought it was fun.” Lydia sounded scared. “I wanted to use the time I got off school to get used to and control my powers. Maybe even pull some more pranks on you guys with Betelgeuse.”

Barbara rested a hand against her forehead. “Well, let’s just focus on helping you get used to and learn to control your powers, Lydia. Please don’t pull anymore pranks with Betelgeuse.”

“Oh, alright.” Lydia hung her head and sighed.


	11. Ten

Early the next morning, Adam sat down next to Lydia at the kitchen counter and pointed his hand down at an open page in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. The contents of the page talked about telekinesis and Lydia guessed that that was what she was going to learn how to control today. 

Lydia was...distracted. All she still could think about was all the fun things she could do with her powers. She knew her dad, Delia, Adam, and Barbara told her off for pulling that prank on them with Betelgeuse’s help the day prior. But was she going to let that stop her from still pulling pranks on her four parents. No, she was not. She’d already had the best idea for an even better prank deep in her mind. There was no way that her dad, Delia, Adam, and Barbara were going to stop her from pulling such a prank. It was her best yet.

“Lydia?” Adam asked, turning his attention to his distracted surrogate daughter. “Are you listening?”

“H-huh...” Lydia shook her head, focusing her attention back towards her surrogate ghost father. “Yeah...”

“Good.” Adam smiled as he and Lydia both refocused their attention down towards the open copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. As long as Lydia wasn’t going to get distracted again, they could focus on helping her learn to control her powers one by one.

Tomorrow, Barbara was going to help Lydia learn to control her teleportation and the male ghost was afraid that was going to end with Lydia teleporting all over the house. Not only that, but, he also didn’t want today’s lesson to end with Lydia telekinetically throwing random stuff around the kitchen. 

“So,” Adam continued, pointing a hand down towards the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. “Let’s start with something easy. You see that Apple over there?”

Lydia’s eyes followed Adam’s hand. “Yeah?”

“Try telekinetically levitating it out of the fruit bowl and please don’t throw it across the room,” Adam instructed with a clear sigh. 

Lydia focused her attention on the fruit bowl, telekinetically levitating the apple and, for some strange reason, a couple of oranges and a banana out of it. Adam was nervous. What was Lydia planning on doing with the oranges and the banana. 

“Lydia, I told you to just levitate a single apple...” Adam groaned and face palmed, ducking as Lydia moved to throw the two oranges and the banana halfway across the kitchen. 

“Oh, did you now? I don’t remember that!”

“Lydia Veronica Joyce Deetz!”

Lydia shrunk back a little, nervous by her surrogate ghost father’s sudden outburst. Adam calmed down a little. Seeing his surrogate daughter scared of him wasn’t good. He needed to not raise his voice at the teenager from time to time. And, now that he thought about it, so did Barbara and Charles. And he knew what Betelgeuse had gone through with his mother. The male ghost did not want Lydia to feel the same around him, her dad, and Barbara. 

And then there was Betelgeuse...

Adam also didn’t want to lash out at Lydia like Betelgeuse had done that one time. That one time he did not want to remember. That one memory he wanted to forget ever happened.

Although he tried his best to not think about it, Adam began to think about the one time he and Barbara were turned into toddlers on accident by Betelgeuse. He did not remember much about the incident but he did know, according to Lydia, he had caused quite a bit of trouble for both Lydia and Betelgeuse although he wasn’t quite sure what kind of trouble the teenager was referring to. 

“I’m sorry, Lydia,” Adam sputtered out. She smiled at him, coming over and pulling him into a hug. “I-that was just on instinct.”

“I know, Adam.”

“Did you want to continue with learning how to control your telekinesis, Lydia?” Adam asked.

“Sure.”

He smiled, sitting down at the kitchen counter with Lydia and the two continued on with their lesson. Their lesson which still consisted of Lydia telekinetically levitating random objects and throwing them about the kitchen much to Adam’s chagrin.

But the male ghost managed to remain calm throughout the entirety of the lesson, not once losing his temper and raising his voice at Lydia. All was good for the rest of the day.

Adam wasn’t prepared for tomorrow.


	12. Eleven

Barbara sat Lydia on the couch, the Handbook for the Recently Deceased in her lap. Today, she was going to help the teenager learn to control her teleportation and she didn’t want Lydia to goof around with said powers much like yesterday morning when Lydia decided to telekinetically throw random stuff around the kitchen or yesterday evening when Lydia and Betelgeuse decided to play a game of Indoor Tag in midair. They initially had wanted Adam to join the two of them but the male ghost refused.

Though Lydia and Betelgeuse could tell he wanted to play with them if they were to ever play another round of Indoor Tag. That made the two of them happy, knowing he wanted to join and play with them. 

Lydia suddenly became distracted again, worrying Barbara. The female ghost coughed loudly to grab Lydia’s attention and the teenager turned to look at her. Lydia noticed that her surrogate ghost mother was shooting her an annoyed look and she laughed, eyeing the Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

“What’s today’s lesson again, Barb?” Lydia asked.

“I was going to help you get used to and learn to control your teleportation today, Lydia,” Barbara explained with a sigh. “Make sure you don’t just teleport when you’re upset.”

“Do I really only teleport when I’m upset?”

“Yes. Adam, Charles, Delia, Betelgeuse, and I have seen you do that multiple times, Lydia,” Barbara groaned.

“Heh...sorry.” Lydia folded her arms behind her back.

Barbara focused her attention towards the living room of the Maitland-Deetz house, coming up with an easy thing for Lydia to do to learn to control her teleportation. “Lydia?”

“Yeah.”

“Try teleporting into the living room and back into here,” Barbara instructed. “Please don’t teleport into any room other than the living room or the kitchen. I don’t want you messing around with your powers like you did yesterday.”

“I won’t.”

Barbara wasn’t sure if Lydia was lying to her and was in fact planning on teleporting someplace other than the living room and the kitchen. She saw a wicked grin plastered on Lydia’s face and groaned. “Lydia, please don’t...”

“I wasn’t planning on teleporting into a room other than the living room and or the kitchen,” Lydia lied. “Honest.”

“Lydia, I can tell you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying, Barb.”

“Lydia.” Barbara placed her hands on her hips.

Lydia did not want Barbara to know that she was in fact lying. She just wanted to spend some time with Betelgeuse. Wherever he was. 

“Lydia,” Barbara repeated.

Turning to Barbara, Lydia flashed a wicked grin and giggled. 

Barbara could tell Lydia wanted to do something fun. Something dangerous and fun. All the female ghost wanted Lydia to do today was learn to control her teleporting. She did not want today’s lesson to turn into something like yesterday’s lesson where Lydia simply chose to just mess around with her powers instead of actually learning how to control them.

“Lydia!”

Lydia teleported out of the kitchen and did not reappear in the living room much to Barbara’s chagrin. She groaned and exited the kitchen, her mind set on looking for her surrogate daughter. Wherever Lydia was as of right now, Barbara was going to let her know she was in trouble.

Really big trouble.


	13. Twelve

Lydia appeared in the attic of the Maitland-Deetz house, a few feet away from Betelgeuse. She turned, seeing Adam over in the corner, working on his model of the town. The male ghost had his eyes on her, wondering what she was doing here and why she wasn’t with Barbara, learning how to control her teleporting.

Adam opened his mouth to speak but Lydia interrupted him. “Before you say anything, don’t let Barbara know I’m here. I don’t want to get in trouble with her.”

“Lydia,” Adam tried to say.

“Don’t let Barbara know I’m here,” Lydia repeated, a little louder.

With that said, Lydia made her way over towards Betelgeuse whilst keeping her eyes focused solely on Adam. She did not want Barbara to know that she was here in the first place. Nor did she want to get in trouble with her surrogate ghost mother. She came here to spend some time with Betelgeuse. 

She’d learn to control her teleporting tomorrow. Barbara would hopefully understand.

Betelgeuse opened the window that led to the roof and followed Lydia through it, closing the window behind him. Adam sighed, turning to face the door of the attic just as knocking sounded. Worried that it was his wife, angered with Lydia, Adam did not know what to do. After all, Lydia did tell him not to tell Barbara she was here. But that was the only thing he could think of doing. 

But then again, he had promised Lydia that he would never get upset with her again. Telling Barbara that Lydia was here would make him feel like he was upset with Lydia as well. 

Should he...should he really tell Barbara that Lydia was with Betelgeuse on the roof?

No. 

“Adam!” He heard his wife shout from the other side of the door. “Are you in here?”

“Yeah!” Adam shouted back. He stopped working on his model of the town, watching as his wife entered the attic. Adam could see a look of anger on Barbara’s face and he quickly dashed in front of the window leading out to the roof of the house. 

No.

No. That was essentially telling Barbara where Lydia was. Adam quickly moved to the side. But it was too late. Barbara already knew where Lydia was.

“Oh, so, Lydia’s outside on the roof, is she?” Barbara placed her hands on her hips.

All Adam could do was nod in response. Watching in sadness as Barbara stepped towards the window leading out to the roof of the house and opened it, heading outside.

__________

Barbara stepped out onto the roof of the house, eyeing Lydia. When she saw the teen was laughing along with Betelgeuse and just having fun with him, Barbara’s anger faded. She sat herself down next to Lydia and Betelgeuse and the two focused their attention on her. Lydia became nervous whilst Betelgeuse was outright confused and concerned for his best friend.

“Ah, Barbara, I didn’t know you were out here,” Lydia sputtered. “I’m not in trouble with you, am I?”

“Well, you were,” came Barbara’s response. “But I didn’t want to disturb your time with Betelgeuse.” 

“So, I’m not in trouble now?”

“Goodness no.” Barbara laughed. “I’d still like to talk to you about teleporting up here instead of into the living room like I asked you to earlier, though.”

Lydia was confused. “I didn’t teleport up here.”

“So you teleported yourself into the attic of the house and then came out here?” Barbara questioned, shaking her head.

Lydia became scared. She’d told Adam not to tell Barbara that she was out here. “How much did Adam tell you?”

“He didn’t tell me anything,” Barbara responded. “He just stepped in front of the window leading out to here and nodded when I asked him if you were out here.”

Lydia was furious. She stomped over towards the window to the attic and telekinetically opened it, leaning inside. 

“ADAM!!!”


	14. Thirteen

Adam paced around the living room. Thinking about how to let Lydia know he was sorry for accidentally giving away her location to Barbara. This had made the teenager mad at him and that hurt the male ghost’s feelings,

Barbara assured him that she wasn’t as angered with Lydia as she was when the teenager did not teleport into the living room like she was asked to do. She’d gone out onto the roof to talk to Lydia and was about to do so when she accidentally let it slip that she was only outside on the roof because Adam’d accidentally stepped in front of the window leading out to the roof instead of lying and telling Barbara Lydia wasn’t even in the attic. That turned out to be a huge mistake.

Adam began to think of what would happen if Lydia had actually gone through with attacking him. He knew she was upset with him but he didn’t think she was that upset with him. Her almost attacking him was deemed unexpected. Something he wished didn’t happen to him.

He was glad Barbara and Betelgeuse stopped her when they did.

Barbara, Charles, Delia, and Betelgeuse watched Adam as he continued to pace around the living room. Adam came to a stop in front of the four of them and sat in between Charles and Barbara on the couch.

“What can I do to make it up to her?” Adam asked, resting a hand against his chin. 

“Maybe you should apologize to her?” Barbara suggested.

“No. I tried that earlier and all she did was telekinetically slam her bedroom door in my face and lock it,” Adam sighed. 

Adam hoped this was all going to blow over soon and she was willing to talk to him again. But for now, he just wanted to leave Lydia alone and give her some space. Everyone did, actually. They weren’t sure if Lydia just refused to talk to Adam for the time being. 

They knew Lydia. They knew she’d be willing to talk to Adam by the end of the day. 

“Does anyone here have any other ideas about how I can make it up to Lydia?” Adam asked, hopeful.

_______

Adam teleported himself upstairs and was now standing in front of Lydia’s bedroom door. He could tell it was still locked and that meant she was still mad with him. Adam was nervous. Unsure of whether or not Lydia was going to allow him to enter her room. Especially after how upset he had initially made her earlier that day.

Taking a deep breath he knocked on his surrogate daughter’s bedroom door. “Lydia?!”

“Go away, Adam!”

That proved it. She was still upset with him. Adam took a few shaky steps backwards and turned, heading downstairs. He’d try to talk to Lydia later on in the day. She needed some more alone time.

_______

Adam slowly made his way downstairs and into the living room where Barbara, Charles, Delia, and Betelgeuse were all waiting to see if he had managed to apologize to Lydia for what’d happened earlier. 

He sat himself down on the couch and sighed, almost immediately letting the other four that he did not have any luck in getting Lydia to talk to him again. There was always next time.

“No luck huh?” Barbara asked.

“Nope,” came Adam’s response. “No luck.”


	15. Fourteen

Inside her room, the teenager thought quietly to herself. She wasn’t sure if she could allow Adam to apologize to her. Even after what had happened earlier. She was still upset with him. 

She heard a noise outside her bedroom door followed by the sound of a voice. “Lydia?!”

She knew it was Adam. Turning and making her way over towards her bedroom door, Lydia angrily slammed her fist against it. “Go away, Adam!”

As she heard him leave, she slumped against her bedroom door, her back turned to it, and started to cry softly to herself. Now she was less upset with her surrogate ghost father. Should she go downstairs and allow him to apologize. 

She looked at her alarm clock. It was almost dinner time. 

She was hungry.

_____________

It was a quarter after six when Lydia emerged from her bedroom and made her way downstairs, clearly drawn to the smell of pasta being made that night. 

As she sat herself down at the kitchen counter and rested her hands on top of it, Delia and Barbara turned to her, surprised smiles on their faces. They were elated to see her. Considering she’d spent the entire afternoon locked in her bedroom. 

Barbara moved to sit next to the teenager and Delia refocused her attention back towards the stove. Next to Lydia, Barbara rested one hand on her shoulder and the other in her short, Black hair. Lydia leaned her head against Barbara’s chest as the latter began to gently run her hand through her hair.

“It’s about time you came out of your room, Lydia,” Barbara commented with a chuckle, pulling the teenager into a hug. Which Lydia immediately accepted. “Do you feel ready to let Adam apologize to you?”

“Not quite yet,” came Lydia’s response. “I think I’m gonna wait until dinner is ready and on the table. That’s a much better time to have him apologize to me.”

“Oh, alright then.”

_____________

Dinner that night was silent. Nobody really said anything. Lydia sat as far away from Adam as she could. Looking away every time Adam looked in her direction. He gave up after a while. It was clear that Lydia still didn’t want to talk to him or even allow him to apologize to her. 

This worried Barbara. She remembered the conversation she had with the teenager earlier. Lydia had told her that she was going to allow Adam to apologize to her during dinner. Why was she still upset with him? This was something that Barbara didn’t get. Turning to look over towards Lydia, the female ghost shifted a little in her seat and coughed loudly to grab her attention.

“Did you need something, Barb?” Lydia asked confusedly, turning to face her surrogate ghost mother.

“Yes,” came Barbara’s response. “You told me that you were going to allow Adam to apologize to you when dinner was ready. Dinner is almost done and you still haven’t accepted an apology from him. What on Earth happened?”

“I just don’t feel like it. That’s all.”

“Come on Lydia,” Adam pleaded with his surrogate daughter. “Please just let me apologize to you.”

“Perhaps after dinner is completely done,” Lydia responded with a sigh.

“Thank you, Lydia,” Adam said with a smile.

_________

As Barbara, Delia, and Charles cleaned up the dinner table and cleared away the dishes, Lydia sat with Adam in the living room. Looking unsure of how she was going to apologize to him. Seeing this, Adam reached over and rested a hand under her chin lifting her head up so that she was looking in his direction.

“Lydia,” he said with a smile. “It’s okay. I just want to make it up to you. I’ve been coming up with ways to make it up to you. Why don’t you want me to apologize to you?

“I...i...” was all Lydia said.

“Go on,” Adam urged his surrogate daughter. 

She did not want to continue speaking, instead reaching over and pulling the male ghost into a hug. Adam was surprised at first, but eventually accepted the hug his surrogate daughter was giving him.

“I take it this means I’m forgiven?” Adam asked. 

“Yes,” was all Lydia said.

Barbara had turned to look over into the living room, a smile crossing her face as she watched Lydia’s and Adam’s hug. Just seeing the two interact after everything that had happened earlier made her happy.

She made her way over towards the living room and sat herself down in between her husband and Lydia the same moment they pulled away from each other. Barbara rested her arms around both of their shoulders and they focused their attention on her. 

“I’m guessing everything’s okay for now?” Barbara asked the two of them.

“Yes.” Adam rested a hand on Barbara’s shoulder. The ghostly couple looked to Lydia, who nodded quietly in response.

“Good.” Barbara breathed a sigh of relief.


	16. Fifteen

Getting Lydia to go to bed was no easy task. All the teen wanted to do was pull pranks with Betelgeuse all night long. She vowed to stay up and have fun with her powers rather than go to sleep. Idea after idea ran through her mind. What was she going to do first.

Another go at the bucket of water prank that she and Betelgeuse had pulled on her four parents not too long ago? No. They weren’t going to do that again. Lydia didn’t want her dad, Delia, and the Maitlands getting mad at her once again. That idea was immediately out of the question.

She turned to Betelgeuse, hoping the male demon had any good ideas but all he could think of was instead of pouring buckets of water over her parents’ heads, they could pour buckets of hot sauce over their heads. Lydia was thrilled with the idea. 

Materializing four buckets of hot sauce out of thin air, the two of then crept over towards Lydia’s four unsuspecting parents and snickered as they levitated all four of the buckets over their heads, preparing to pour them. Lydia’s dad heard them snickering, unfortunately, and he turned to look over towards them before focusing his attention up towards the ceiling. He gasped in shock upon seeing the slowly tipping buckets floating in midair.

Charles crossed his arms as he sighed in annoyance and glared at Lydia and Betelgeuse. “I thought we said you guys weren’t allowed to pull any more pranks on us. What are the buckets of water for, guys?”

Betelgeuse chuckled softly to himself. “These aren’t buckets of water, guys.”

By now, Delia, Adam, and Barbara had focused their attention up towards the ceiling, seeing the floating buckets. Now angered, they focused their attention over towards Lydia and Betelgeuse.

“Then what are they?” Barbara asked suspiciously.

“Buckets of hot sauce.” Lydia smiled. 

With a knowing wink to Betelgeuse, the two of them tipped their buckets completely and poured the hot sauce over Lydia’s four parents. When they were done, they turned and focused their attention over towards Charles, Delia, and the Maitlands and paused suddenly, seeing equally enraged looks on their faces.

Why was Adam as angry as the rest of Lydia’s parents were? Lydia recalled a conversation she had with him about a week ago about how he was going to remain calm whenever Lydia caused trouble and/or pulled pranks with Betelgeuse’s help.

She and Betelgeuse saw Adam realize that he was furious and immediately calm himself down, standing in between Lydia and Betelgeuse and the rest of the Maitland-Deetz family. Barbara, Charles, and Delia all calmed down as well, wondering what Adam was doing.

“Adam, honey, what are you-,” Barbara tried to say. 

“Look,” Adam spoke up. “I know Lydia and Betelgeuse just pulled a prank on us but that doesn’t mean we should be angry with them. I remember having a conversation with Lydia not too long ago and promising her that I was going to remain calm with her. I think you should all do the same. Don’t you think?”

“Adam...” Barbara repeated.

“No,” Delia said with a sigh. “He’s got a point.”

“Yeah, he’s right,” Charles continued on. “But we’re still going to have to have a word with Lydia about this. She and Betelgeuse can’t keep on pulling pranks on us.” 

As he said that, he eyed Lydia.


	17. Sixteen

The next morning, Charles had Lydia sit down on the couch in the living room of the house and he, Delia, Adam, and Barbara sat across from her. Although they were trying their best to be calm with the teenager, that didn’t mean that they weren’t still upset with her and Betelgeuse for the prank that they pulled on them in the middle of the night.

It had taken all four of Lydia’s parents forever to clean off all the hot sauce that they were covered in. And now they could talk to Lydia. She was, once again, nervous. Her parents had their eyes focused solely towards her and she shrunk back just a little. 

Charles cleared his throat. “Lydia,” he began.

All Lydia could say was, “y-yes.” A mix of sweat and tears began to drip down her face as she began to fear the point of the conversation she was about to have with all four of her parents.

“Why did you and Betelgeuse pull that prank on us?” Her dad continued, sighing as he folded his arms.

“I thought it would be fun for us to pour those buckets of hot sauce over you guys,” Lydia said quietly. Before all four of her parents could protest, Lydia began to speak again. “After the buckets of water prank we pulled on you not too long ago, I thought we’d try something else.”

“And you settled on buckets of hot sauce?” Barbara asked. She raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.

“Yeah.” Lydia smiled. “Next time I think Betelgeuse and I should do buckets of San-.” 

Before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off by her father speaking. “There won’t be anymore pranks pulled on us by you and Betelgeuse, Lydia.”

She turned to him, the smile on her face quickly morphing into a clear frown. “But...”

“No buts, Lydia,” Charles continued, resting his right hand against his forehead. 

He’d initially thought about sending Lydia up to her room for a while but then he remembered that Betelgeuse was supposed to help her figure out if she could make clones of herself. He turned to face the demon.

“Betelgeuse?” He asked.

The male demon turned to him. “Yeah?”

“Aren’t you supposed to help Lydia learn to control her powers today?”

“I am, but I think I should let Babs continue on with helping Lydia learn to control her teleporting today. We’ll do our lesson tomorrow.”

“Are you sure, Betelgeuse?” The tone in Barbara’s voice was worried.

All Betelgeuse did was nod in response.

________

Lydia had initially decided to combine her smaller lessons with Betelgeuse and Barbara into one big lesson. Wanting to make clones of herself and have them teleport all over the place whilst she watched on with glee. Barbara and Betelgeuse were both worried. They weren’t sure what exactly was going to happen if Lydia went through with her plan.

She was currently lounged on her back on the couch of the living room. Laughing as she stared up towards the ceiling. Though Barbara knew for a fact that Lydia was most likely planning on pulling another of her pranks on her, Adam, Charles, and Delia with Betelgeuse’s help. 

Charles, Delia, and Adam had gone to do their own things a little while ago, leaving Barbara and Betelgeuse with Lydia. Both demon and ghost sat at the kitchen counter, thinking deeply about what they could possibly do. Combining both of their lessons into one lesson was going to be particularly hard. 

Barbara opened the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and scanned through the pages, looking for the pages that talked about teleportation and cloning. When she found both of the pages, she heard Betelgeuse laughing rather loudly to himself and turned to see why he was laughing.

She found Lydia hovering upside down in midair, a couple clones floating next to her. Barbara began to panic. Whilst it was confirmed that Lydia could, in fact, make clones of herself, Barbara wasn’t sure why she would clone herself on the spot.

“Uh, Lydia?” Barbara teleported herself into the living room and glanced up towards Lydia. “Why don’t you wait to clone yourself until the three of us get to your combined lesson? Hmmm...”

“But I wanted to make these clones of myself,” Lydia whimpered. She turned to one of her two clones and motioned for her to teleport into the kitchen before turning to the other and motioning for her to teleport into her bedroom.

“Well, why don’t you come down from there and follow me into the kitchen, Lydia?” Barbara suggested. “We could continue from what you just learned to do. How does that sound?”

“Okay.” Lydia smiled. 

She righted herself then floated back down towards the ground, following Barbara into the kitchen and sitting down next to her.

Making two more clones of herself, Lydia smirked widely as she motioned for them to teleport into her bedroom as well, joining her other clone. Barbara and Betelgeuse stared in shock.

This was going to be a long day.


	18. Seventeen

Charles entered Lydia’s bedroom, coming face to face with the three clones of Lydia that were doing nothing but lounging around. Confused as to why there were three Lydia’s, Charles backed out of the room and headed downstairs.

He got downstairs and froze, seeing Lydia sitting at the kitchen counter with Barbara and Betelgeuse. If she was here then what was the deal with the three Lydias that he saw lounging about in Lydia’s bedroom? Choosing to remain calm, Charles sat himself down next to Lydia and cleared his throat loudly, directing the attention of Lydia, Barbara, and Betelgeuse onto him.

Lydia blinked her eyes. “Hey, dad,” She said. “What’s that look for?”

“I thought I saw three of you in your bedroom,” Charles managed to say. “But you’re down here...”

“Three of me?” Came Lydia’s response. “You mean the clones I made?”

“The clones you made?” Charles confusedly scratched his head. 

“Yeah.” Lydia laughed. “The clones I made. They’re all me. Go back upstairs to my room and ask them.”

“O...Kay...”

__________

Charles reentered Lydia’s bedroom, sitting himself on his daughter’s bed next to two of her three clones. The third clone rested a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly at him.

Charles groaned as he began to speak, “Are you all Lydia?”

“YES!” The first clone cheered loudly, launching herself into the air and landing on the bed directly behind Charles. This made him flinch.

“Yes,” the second clone added.

“Yes,” the third of the clones finished. She wrapped her arms around Charles.

All Charles could say was, “um...”  
__________

Charles came back downstairs around fifteen minutes later, trying to remain calm. But there was a clear look of annoyance on his face. He’d gone upstairs and spoken to all three of the Lydia clones but he’d gotten the same answer from all three of them: they were all Lydia. 

In the kitchen of the house, he found Lydia laying on her back on the floor, her legs flailing about as she laughed her head off. Betelgeuse and Barbara were eyeing her in confusion. 

What was going on? 

That’s what Charles wanted to know. He bent down next to his daughter and helped her up to her feet, Lydia’s loud bout of laughter subsiding. She looked at him and smiled widely.

“Lydia, sweetheart,” Charles spoke softly. “All three of your clones told me that they were in fact, all you. Is that true?”

“No. That was a lie. My clones aren’t really me. They’re clones, remember.”

“Lydia Veronica Joyce Deetz!” Charles groaned in anger and Lydia chuckled softly. 

_______

He’d sent her back up to her room, halting the lesson she was having with Barbara and Betelgeuse. Though he did say that they could continue on with it when Lydia was allowed to come back downstairs. But Barbara reassured him that they could stop with the lesson as Lydia seemed to already know how to properly control her teleporting and cloning. They said Adam could help her figure out if she could switch between going invisible and appearing to others.

Charles seemed okay with that.


	19. Eighteen

Early the next morning, Adam sat with Lydia at the kitchen counter and opened the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, flipping to the page that talked about ghosts and invisibility. Figuring that the best way to help Lydia learn how to control switching between going visible and invisible was to show her by seeing if he could do it himself. His eyes scanned the page and then he successfully made himself invisible to Lydia.

Lydia was confused, looking around the kitchen for any signs of her surrogate ghost father. “Adam?!” She called out. “Where’d you go?”

At that, Adam made himself visible to Lydia again, resting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m right here, Lydia. I just made myself invisible to you. That’s all.”

“Oh.” Lydia’s eyes widened in complete curiosity and she leaned over Adam’s shoulder, turning the pages in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Now she just wanted to make herself invisible to Adam and see what he thought of that. “Can I do that?”

“Why else did I do it?” Adam winked at Lydia.

That gave Lydia an idea. 

Lydia smirked, making herself invisible to Adam and reappearing standing on top of the kitchen counter, her eyes focusing solely towards Adam. He stared back up towards her, a look of pure confusion flashing across his face. 

“Lydia, what on Earth are you doing up there?” Adam asked. He scratched his head.

“Just wanted to be up here. That’s all.” The tone in Lydia’s voice was that of amusement. She sat herself down on the kitchen counter and slid off of it, moving to sit herself down next to Adam.

“Never mind that.” Adam bit his lip, nervously glancing off to the side. “Should we continue on with our lesson?”

“Sure.”

The rest of the lesson consisted of Lydia making herself invisible and making herself visible again whenever she was someplace random. Examples including on top of the sofa, on the stairs, upside down and on the ceiling for some reason, and once again on top of the kitchen counter.

The location where Lydia reappeared that confused Adam the most was the ceiling. How Lydia got up there, he was sure he didn’t want to know.

It had taken Adam forever to get Lydia to come down from the ceiling. At first, Lydia didn’t even want to come down. But, by saying that he promised Lydia that he would watch one of her Ghost Hunting shows with her that night, he managed to get her to come down.

______

Barbara entered the kitchen, spotting her husband and Lydia sitting together at the kitchen counter, looking over the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Choosing to remain quiet, Barbara carefully made her way over towards the two of them and sat herself down next to Lydia.

They didn’t seem to notice that she was there at first, but Lydia felt Barbara’s ice cold hand brush against her shoulder. She turned and noticed Barbara sitting next to her. “Hey, Barb,” Lydia greeted the female ghost. “How long have you been sitting there.”

“Two minutes, Lydia,” came Barbara’s response. “I didn’t want to interrupt the lesson you and Adam were doing.”

At that very same moment, Adam looked up from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, turning and eyeing his wife. “Barbara, honey?” he asked, “did you need something?” 

“Nono,” came Barbara’s response. “I just came to let Lydia know that her father needs her for something.”

“What is it, Barb?” Lydia asked her surrogate ghost mother, getting out of her chair and exiting the kitchen to look for her dad. This didn’t give Barbara much of a chance to answer and she just smiled softly at Lydia.

___________

Lydia entered her father’s office space and found him sitting at his desk. His chair was turned away from her and he had his eyes focused solely on a stack of papers situated on the top of his desk in front of him. As soon as Lydia very nearly stumbled a few feet backwards and made the slightest of a quiet noise, Charles spun around in his chair, facing her. 

“Ah, Lydia,” he spoke. “There you are.”

Lydia managed to recompose herself. “Did you need me for something, dad?”

Charles placed a finger to his chin and thought to himself for a few minutes. Then he remembered. “Oh - oh yes,” he gestured towards a stack of books sat on the floor next to him. “Could you pick those up and place them back on their respective shelves, Lydia?”

Lydia looked confused. “Can’t Delia do it? What about Adam? Barbara?”

“Delia’s busy sorting her crystals,” Charles shook his head in response, “and the Maitlands can’t help me with this. If they did, they’d rearrange this entire room multiple times while they were at it.”

“Oh, right,” Lydia laughed, rolling her eyes.

She knew the Maitlands well enough to know that they would refurnish every room in the house if they had the chance. Not that Charles even minded. No wonder the Maitlands liked watching Home Renovation shows from time to time. Lydia used her powers, levitating each of the books her dad was referring to and placing them back onto the shelves.

“Thanks, Lydia,” Charles smiled at his daughter.

“You’re welcome, dad.”


	20. Epilogue

One year had passed since Lydia had accidentally given herself ghost powers and she was already used to them. She didn’t have any more tantrums and she used her powers whenever she helped around the house. She also quite often spent most of her free time in the Netherworld with Betelgeuse or with the Maitlands. It wasn’t that Charles and Delia minded. They understood why that was and they were both okay with that.

Charles and Delia went on a lot more frequent vacations as a result of all of this, leaving Lydia at home with the Maitlands. And this was one of those times. It gave Lydia a better opportunity to get to know the Maitlands and Betelgeuse whenever he chose to stop by. Though it was mostly to check up on Lydia. 

They pulled prank after prank together on the Maitlands any time Betelgeuse showed up in the Maitland-Deetz house. Their best one being buckets filled with Mashed Potatoes. This made the Maitlands equally mad. But that didn’t mean that Betelgeuse and Lydia were going to stop pulling pranks.

_________

Charles and Delia had decided to go on yet another one of their frequent vacations, again leaving Lydia at home with the Maitlands. Betelgeuse had stopped by as well, meaning Lydia could pull another prank on the Maitlands with his help. But she didn’t know what to do. It was Betelgeuse who suggested something for the two of them to do.

He’d suggested they pour buckets of lava over the Maitlands for a laugh. They knew the Maitlands weren’t going to be able to tell that it was lava in the first place. They’d just assume it was actually ice being poured over them.

They got right to work. Materializing buckets of lava out of thin air and carefully, slowly making their way into the Living Room of the Maitland-Deetz house. There, they found the Maitlands both fast asleep on the couch. Snoring away. Barbara’s head resting against Adam’s shoulder and Adam’s arm draped around Barbara’s. 

Lydia and Betelgeuse snickered to one another, tiptoeing over behind the couch and very slowly tipping the buckets of lava over. The lava poured out of both buckets and over the Maitlands’ heads, waking both ghosts up with a start.

They looked up, eyeing Betelgeuse and Lydia and Barbara chose to be the one to speak up, “uh, guys, why did you pour ice all over our heads?”

“That wasn’t ice,” Lydia snickered.

“Then what was it?” The tone present in Adam’s voice was confused. He was afraid of the answer he was going to get.

“Lava!” Lydia and Betelgeuse shouted in unison. They fell over onto the floor on their backs and started laughing as hard as they possibly could. Adam and Barbara looked down at them, looks of annoyance plastered on both of their faces. This was going to be a long day. 

“Lava or not,” Barbara rested a hand against her forehead and sighed, “you guys do know you’re in trouble, right?”

“We know,” Betelgeuse and Lydia said in unison.


End file.
